Maybe I don't understand how to manage 145+ billion in cash, but I think that we shouldn't be having all of these problems. IMO for a few billion more in R&D we should have an OS and hardware platform to brag about and not to have to make excuses for anymore. Jobs was kind of the same, I didn't understand how some mistakes were made with all of the resources he had, but it seems to me the quality of hardware and software has become worse under Cook.

Maybe I don't understand how to manage 145+ billion in cash, but I think that we shouldn't be having all of these problems.

I think the issues stem from Apple's focus on the iDevice ecosystem, since that's their cash cow moving into the future. The "Pro" market is obviously not nearly as important to them as it used to be and it shows.

As for iWork, ideally they'd make a "Pro" version to match their other "Pro" apps that nobody expects to run on an iPhone. But I'm not sure Apple is that committed these days to much of anything without an "i" in front of it (the $3k+ über-can notwithstanding)

as I was hoping they'd fix some of the more glaring issues rather than concentrate on cross-platform parity

Do you mean Windows parity? If so I agree, it's years past due. Reference my post about how to make good use of 145+ billion in cash.

Yes I get the iDevice thing, it has become a source of income for me too, but I think it's still too early to alienate the users I see still wanting to sit in front of a monitor. Unless that's the road plan Steve-o left. He knew when to dump the floppy.

Then again, I don't have 145 b in cash. If I did I would have arranged a massive get-together for all of us by now, even Phos and poly.

My big worry is that the iDevice stuff will become so lucrative that Apple will just phase-out any offerings for the professional segment and leave us with no real choice but to move to Windows. (Fortunately, Adobe's products are virtually platform agnostic, so that wouldn't be a huge issue for me -- but in my particular world, having Powerpoint as the *only* practical option for presentation software is a scary thought) …

Apple has begun to adopt for its particular consumer solar system what many software developers once followed as a broader marketing strategy for the consumer computing universe. Remember when Mac versions of many software products were scarce while PC versions were ubiquitous? That was because the market share disparity btwn the two platforms was enormous. Hell, brands like Intuit still follow that rule to a frustrating degree.

Apple's iSomething product expansion seduced more customers on a huge scale — though not so much regarding computers as iDevices. And the iDevices are targeted more to the overall consumer base, in which pro users are a minority.

So yeah, phones and tablets — even iMacs — are generating way more revenue than products like the Mac Pro. And if you're not a cash-cow, youse just ain't as sexy as youse used to was.

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